SINGAPORE (Reuters) &#8211; Singapore suspended operations of all Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in and out of Changi airport on Tuesday, and Indonesia and China grounded their fleets of the U.S. planemaker’ s latest model after it suffered a second fatal crash in less than five months. 



The scare has wiped billions of dollars off the market value of the world’s biggest planemaker, as the Boeing Co share closed 5 percent down on Monday having fallen by as much as 13.5 percent at one point.



A day after a Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet plunged to the ground, killing all 157 people aboard, the United States stressed it was safe to fly the planes.



But a statement issued by Singapore’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAAS) showed question-marks hanging over the aircraft after Sunday’s disaster could not be dispelled so fast.



“During the temporary suspension, CAAS will gather more information and review the safety risk associated with the continued operation of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft into and out of Singapore,” the aviation regulator said in a statement.



It is the first major regulator to order such an action, but the anxiety was also evident among air travellers, who rushed to find out from social media whether they were booked to fly on 737 MAX planes &#8211; the same model involved in the Lion Air crash off Indonesia that killed 189 people in October.



There has been no information yet to link the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines incidents.



Investigators in Ethiopia found two black box recorders that will provide information about what happened before the plane plunged into farmland minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa.



So long as the recordings are undamaged, the cause of the crash could be identified quickly, although it typically takes a year to fully complete an investigation.



The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a “continued airworthiness notification” for the 737 MAX late on Monday to assure operators, and detailed a series of design changes mandated by Boeing.



Boeing issued a statement as well, saying it had been working with the FAA in the aftermath of a Lion Air crash to develop enhancements to flight control software that will be deployed across the 737 MAX fleet in coming weeks.



The improvements include updates to the manoeuvring characteristics augmentation system, pilot displays, operation manuals and crew training.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">SUSPENSIONS MOUNTING</h3>



Democratic U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein urged the FAA to ground Boeing’s 737 MAX 8 fleet.



“Until the cause of the crash is known and it’s clear that similar risks aren’t present in the domestic fleet, I believe all Boeing 737 Max 8 series aircraft operating in the United States should be temporarily grounded,” Feinstein wrote.



The new MAX 8 variant of the 737, the world’s best-selling modern passenger aircraft, has bigger engines designed to use less fuel. It entered service in 2017, and by the end of January Boeing had delivered 350 of the new jets to customers.



With another 4,661 on order, and 737 Max 8s could become the workhorses for airlines around the globe for decades.



Ethiopian Airlines, which has four other 737 MAX 8 jets, said it was grounding them as a precaution.



Gol in Brazil temporarily suspended MAX 8 flights, as did Argentina’s state airline Aerolineas Argentinas and Mexico’s Aeromexico.



Singapore Airlines, whose SilkAir brand operates 6 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, said it has temporarily withdrawn its fleet and would re-accommodate affected customers.



Other airlines that operate Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to Singapore &#8211; China Southern Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Shandong Airlines and Thai Lion Air &#8211; are also affected.



The country’s Changi Airport said Shandong had cancelled its flight to and from Jinan but other airlines had replaced the jet with another type.



China on Monday ordered its airlines to suspend the use of their 737 MAX 8 jets. The country’s aviation regulator said it would notify airlines when they could resume flying the jets, after contacting Boeing and the FAA.



The current scare could jeopardise a potential commitment by China to buy more Boeing-made aircraft as part of a deal being negotiated to end a trade war with the United States.



India’s regulator ordered additional maintenance checks on 737 MAX 8 aircraft operating in the country and said a review found “no significant concern”.



Still, major airlines from North America to the Middle East kept flying the 737 MAX on Monday, though Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau said he would not hesitate to take action once the cause of the crash is known.



Southwest Airlines Co, which operates the largest fleet of 737 MAX 8s, said it remained confident in the safety of all its Boeing planes even as it fielded queries from customers.



“Our customer relations team is responding to these customers individually, emphasizing our friendly, no-change fee policy,” the fourth largest U.S. airline said in a statement.



Former U.S. Federal Aviation Administration accident investigator Mike Daniel said he believed the decision by regulators to ground the planes was premature. “To me it almost surreal how quickly some of the regulators are just grounding the aircraft without any factual information yet as a result of the investigation,” he told Reuters.



However, he said more groundings were now likely due to a “snowball effect” unless Boeing or the FAA released more information.



Additional reporting by Maggie Fick, Katharine Houreld and Hereward Holland in Nairobi, Stella Qiu in Beijing, Bernadette Christina Munthe in Jakarta, Josh Horwitz in Shanghai, Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru, Stephanie Nebehay and Michelle Nichols in New York, Eric Johnson in Seattle and Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; Writing by Sayantani Ghosh; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore

While some countries grounded Boeing’s 737 MAX 8 following the Ethiopian Airlines crash, one country says it’s safe to fly the planes

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; Troubled South African construction firm Group Five has been placed in business rescue and had its shares suspended from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, it said on Tuesday.



The company, which has been struggling for some time with cash flow problems and a $60 million compensation claim, said the board had taken the decision after a consortium of its lenders refused to provide additional funding.



Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing Tiisetso Motsoeneng

South Africa’s Group Five placed in business rescue after lenders pull plug, what you need to know

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/emmie-martin/">By Emmie Martin</a>



Despite his legendary stock-picking abilities, Warren Buffett remains a staunch supporter of index funds. He <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/03/why-warren-buffett-says-index-funds-are-the-best-investment.html">favors them</a> over most other investing options.



The Oracle of Omaha even said he&#8217;s instructed the trustee in charge of his estate to invest 90 percent of his money into the S&amp;P 500 for his wife after he dies, Buffett told CNBC&#8217;s Becky Quick in an exclusive interview on &#8220;Squawk Box&#8221; on Monday.



&#8220;There&#8217;s been no better bet than America,&#8221; he says.



Here&#8217;s why Buffett&#8217;s favorite investment can be a smart choice for almost anyone, especially those who are new to the market.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">What index funds are</h4>



Index funds are a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2014/05/06/what-is-an-index-fund.html">form of passive investing</a>. They hold every stock in an index such as the S&amp;P 500, which includes big-name companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Google, and they offer low turnover rates, so&nbsp;<a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/indexfund.asp">fees and taxes tend to be low</a>&nbsp;as well.



You can think of an index fund as a basket of stocks with hundreds or thousands of different ones inside, explains Nick Holeman, a certified financial planner at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.betterment.com/">Betterment</a>.



&#8220;It&#8217;s the cheapest and easiest way to diversify your money that you&#8217;re investing,&#8221; Holeman says.



The rate of return for each index fund is determined by the performance of the companies that are in it, which can balance each other out. Say you buy an index that contains only two companies, and one goes up by 3 percent but the other goes down by 2 percent. In that case, you&#8217;re still up by 1 percent overall.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Why they can be a great bet</h4>



A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/24/why-an-index-fund-is-warren-buffetts-favorite-way-to-invest.html">major benefit of index funds</a>&nbsp;is that they&#8217;re low-cost. That&#8217;s because they don&#8217;t require much effort to manage: You just purchase the index and let it do its thing instead of following, buying and selling shares in particular companies.



Index funds are also tax efficient because they don&#8217;t require much trading. Managers are &#8220;not constantly buying and selling within that fund,&#8221; Holeman says. &#8220;Anytime that you do a lot of buying and selling, there&#8217;s the potential to cost yourself a lot in taxes.&#8221;



That can translate to more money in your pocket. Because you aren&#8217;t paying an advisor as much as you would for actively managed funds, you&#8217;re probably saving money in fees that could cut into your returns, Holeman says.



Another advantage to index funds is that they aren&#8217;t tied to the success of a single entity.



&#8220;The trick is not to pick the right company,&#8221; Buffett&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/12/warren-buffett-says-index-funds-make-the-best-retirement-sense-practically-all-the-time.html">told CNBC&#8217;s &#8220;On The Money&#8221; in 2017</a>. &#8220;The trick is to essentially buy all the big companies through the S&amp;P 500 and to do it consistently.&#8221;



Remember, diversification is key. Always make sure that you&#8217;re <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/19/dont-follow-this-common-piece-of-investing-advice.html">doing your homework</a>, and consider working with a financial professional (as long as they&#8217;re a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/13/why-its-important-to-know-what-fiduciary-means.html">fiduciary</a>) to craft a investment plan that makes the most sense for you.



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/26/warren-buffett-wants-90-percent-of-his-estate-invested-in-index-funds.html?recirc=taboolainternal and is republished with its permission.

Warren Buffett wants 90 percent of his wealth to go to this one investment after he’s gone

<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Absa-Wealth1-1110x624.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-330691" width="594" height="334"/><figcaption>Our Galaxy &#8211; The Milky Way, A Veiga Starlight, Lugo, Galicia, Spain.</figcaption></figure>



A global player



We are excited to offer you a series of bespoke solutions to meet your global investment needs allowing for seamless reporting of all your offshore holdings, across geographies, currencies and asset classes, all done within one seamless portfolio and client statement. 



To achieve this we have
appointed Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS), an integrated division
of Société Générale S.A., as our platform provider and sub-custodian.



This means you benefit from
real-time access to your investment portfolio that could include offshore
capital and non-capital protected structured products and offshore
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all of these products are available in GBP, USD and EUR – the choice is yours.



Our holistic value proposition
allows for scalability, improved service and increased geographical reach.



To enhance our value
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About Société
Générale



Société Générale S.A. is
France’s third largest bank by total assets and Europe’s sixth largest. The
bank forms part of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index and enjoys the following
credit ratings: Fitch: A+, Moody’s: A1, Standard &amp; Poor’s: A. SGSS’s
competitive strength on asset safety is linked to the capacity to demonstrate
the legal ownership and asset protection chain of the securities it holds. Furthermore
it has €4,036bn assets under custody, providing trustee services for 3,329
funds, validation of 4,141 funds and has €651bn in assets under administration.



Isn’t it time you added a world of diversity to your portfolio? 



<figure class="wp-block-video"><video controls src="blob:http://cnbc.africa/164a9be0-7b43-44ad-adbc-d63ce2bb982e"></video></figure>



To invest or find out
more:



absa.co.za/wealth



Wealth Assist: 0860 265 265



<a href="mailto:wealthassist@absa.co.za">wealthassist@absa.co.za</a>



Terms and conditions apply 65368/MH Authorised Financial Services Provider Registered Credit Provider Reg No NCRCP7 







Content provided by Absa Wealth

Here’s how you can explore endless horizons with offshore solutions to meet your global investment needs

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/sarah-berger/">By Sarah Berger</a>



At 29, Taylor Swift has 32 Grammy nominations and 10 wins. She has seven hit albums, her concert tours&nbsp;<a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/8487606/taylor-swift-reputation-stadium-tour-breaks-record-highest-grossing-us-tour">break records</a>&nbsp;and her estimated net worth in 2018 was a whopping&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2018/07/11/taylor-swifts-net-worth-320-million-in-2018/#6e7341cb233f">$320 million.</a>



Swift turns 30 this year (in December) and despite her success, she says her 20s have been filled with trials and tribulations. But Swift has learned from them.



One of the noteworthy things Swift has learned is about the perils of being too nice.



&#8220;Being sweet to everyone all the time can get you into a lot of trouble,&#8221; she writes for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a26628467/taylor-swift-30th-birthday-lessons/">Elle</a>&nbsp;in an article called &#8220;30 Things I Learned Before 30.&#8221; &#8220;While it may be born from having been raised to be a polite young lady, this can contribute to some of your life&#8217;s worst regrets if someone takes advantage of this trait in you,&#8221; she says.



&#8220;Grow a backbone, trust your gut, and know when to strike back,&#8221; she writes. &#8220;Be like a snake — only bite if someone steps on you.&#8221;



Swift also says she&#8217;s learned that &#8220;it&#8217;s good to mess up&#8221; and to learn from your mistakes.



At 29, Taylor Swift has 32 Grammy nominations and 10 wins. She has seven hit albums, her concert tours&nbsp;<a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/8487606/taylor-swift-reputation-stadium-tour-breaks-record-highest-grossing-us-tour">break records</a>&nbsp;and her estimated net worth in 2018 was a whopping&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2018/07/11/taylor-swifts-net-worth-320-million-in-2018/#6e7341cb233f">$320 million.</a>



Swift turns 30 this year (in December) and despite her success, she says her 20s have been filled with trials and tribulations. But Swift has learned from them.



One of the noteworthy things Swift has learned is about the perils of being too nice.



&#8220;Being sweet to everyone all the time can get you into a lot of trouble,&#8221; she writes for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a26628467/taylor-swift-30th-birthday-lessons/">Elle</a>&nbsp;in an article called &#8220;30 Things I Learned Before 30.&#8221; &#8220;While it may be born from having been raised to be a polite young lady, this can contribute to some of your life&#8217;s worst regrets if someone takes advantage of this trait in you,&#8221; she says.



&#8220;Grow a backbone, trust your gut, and know when to strike back,&#8221; she writes. &#8220;Be like a snake — only bite if someone steps on you.&#8221;



Swift also says she&#8217;s learned that &#8220;it&#8217;s good to mess up&#8221; and to learn from your mistakes.



&#8220;Trying and failing and trying again and failing again is normal,&#8221; she says.So &#8220;take risks.&#8221;



&#8220;It&#8217;s especially good to do this in your twenties because we are searching. That&#8217;s GOOD. We&#8217;ll always be searching but never as intensely as when our brains are still developing at such a rapid pace.&#8221;



<a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a26628467/taylor-swift-30th-birthday-lessons/">Other things Swift says she learned</a>&nbsp;in her 20s range from the small — like how to make a Mojito and her discovery of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.command.com/3M/en_US/command/">Command tape</a>&nbsp;— to the huge. Swift says her mom&#8217;s cancer recurrence taught her not to sweat the small stuff, and she learned to heal childhood scars, like the insecurities that came from being an unpopular kid in grade school who sat alone at the lunch table.



Swift has also learned to forgive herself. &#8220;Step into the daylight and let it go,&#8221; she writes.



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/08/taylor-swift-being-polite-can-lead-to-some-of-your-worst-regrets.html and is republished with its permission.

Can politeness lead to ‘some of your life’s worst regrets’ ? Taylor Swift seems to think so…

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South African bank Absa said on Monday its full-year headline earnings dipped by 1 percent in 2018, when taking into account 3.2 billion rand ($221.77 million) in costs related to its separation from British lender Barclays. 



Absa, which has re-branded and renewed its strategy as a standalone African bank after separating from Barclays in 2017, announced a final dividend of 11.10 rand per share, up 4 percent from the previous year.



However, when taking into account the divorce from its parent, headline earnings per share (HEPS) decreased and costs rose by 8 percent and its return on equity fell to 13.4 percent.



HEPS &#8211; the key profit measure in South Africa &#8211; stood at 1,703.7 cents in the year ended Dec. 31, compared with 1,724.5 cents in 2017.



The bank was pleased with its improved momentum in 2018, a year which saw “almost unprecedented” activity for the bank and a “challenging backdrop”, said Rene van Wyk, interim CEO, Absa.



“With major changes bedded down in 2018, the framework for the business has been reset,” he said, adding it can now deepen efforts to deliver against its ambitions.



Absa &#8211; one of South Africa’s biggest lenders and a prominent brand across southern and eastern Africa &#8211; is hoping a new CEO, an aggressive strategy overhaul and restructuring can reset its performance, which has lagged behind competitors and left investors sceptical.



Once South Africa’s largest consumer lender, Absa’s retail offering, which contributes more than half of overall revenue, has lost market share in recent years.



While the South African retail division grew lending and deposits, higher impairments in some units, including auto loans, resulted in earnings growth of 2 percent.



A 76 percent surge in impairments &#8211; the result of exposure to one large single name &#8211; also dragged earnings lower by 1 percent in its corporate and investment bank, where costs exceeded revenue growth.



Absa also wants to double its share of revenue elsewhere in Africa from 6 percent to 12 percent in the medium-term, joining peers such as Standard Bank in turning towards fast-growing economies elsewhere in Africa in the face of economic stagnation at home.



The lender’s operations outside of South Africa grew earnings by 9 percent.



($1 = 14.4296 rand)



Reporting by Emma Rumney, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips

Why S.Africa’s Absa plans to pay higher dividend despite FY earnings drop

An Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet has crashed as it was making its way to Nairobi, Kenya. The jet is believed to have crashed 6 minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Ethiopia. 



Ethiopian Airlines believes that the jet was carrying 149 passengers and 8 crew members on board. 



Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took to twitter to express his condolences to those who have lost loved ones in the crash. 



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">The Office of the PM, on behalf of the Government and people of Ethiopia, would like to express it’s deepest condolences to the families of those that have lost their loved ones on Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 on regular scheduled flight to Nairobi, Kenya this morning.— Office of the Prime Minister &#8211; Ethiopia (@PMEthiopia) <a href="https://twitter.com/PMEthiopia/status/1104650609951719427?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



Ethiopian Airlines released a number of helplines on their twitter account that family or friends of those who may have been on flight to get more information. 



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Below are phone numbers for information Airport emergency hotline 011 5 17 87 33 0115 17 47 35 For all information necessary 011 5 17 89 45 011 5 17 89 87 011 5 17 82 31 011 5 17 85 58— Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) <a href="https://twitter.com/flyethiopian/status/1104675981539852288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Airport emergency hotline (251)11 5 17 87 33 (251)115 17 47 35 (251)11 5 17 41 00 For all information necessary (251)11 5 17 89 45 (251)11 5 17 89 87 (251)11 5 17 82 31 (251)11 5 17 85 58— Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) <a href="https://twitter.com/flyethiopian/status/1104684228602744834?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Ethiopian Airlines flight crashes in Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi

Kopano Gumbi, CNBC Africa 



Africa should guard its fashion and fabrics jealously to
stop the western world coming in and making a fortune from them, says one of
the world’s best known supermodels.&nbsp; 



Naomi Campbell&#8211; draped in an elegant gown, in the colours
of a peacock with a flamboyant head wrap crowning her towering six foot frame, took
to the stage Friday at the Durban International Convention Centre, South Africa
for the FORBES WOMAN AFRICA Leading Women Summit.



“Africa needs to keep its fabrics to itself,” said Campbell.



Campbell is known as one of the longest working supermodels
in the world and she hopes the continent can make more out of her fashion
world. She believes that African prints and designs can be but exported profitably.



Campbell was the epitome of fashion on stage and appeared to
practice what she was preaching. 



“It’s Marianne Fassler,” said Campbell proudly of her frock.
Fassler is one of South Africa’s pre-eminent fashion designers, who has worked
with Campbell before. Elevating African fashion and its designers is a passion of
Campbell’s, who has spent 33 years strutting down the catwalks of the world. 



“My passion and drive is to see this continent of Africa be
as great as it should be,” said Campbell. 



The self-styled rebel, Naomi Campbell, was in Durban, South
Africa to address leading women from across the continent and the world over. 



Today marks the 44th celebration of International
Women’s Day. The official date, March 8th, was recognised by the
United Nations in 1975 and is a public holiday in many countries across the
world. 



“We should have more than just one international women’s day,
because we do so much,” insisted Campbell.&nbsp;
As well as fine jewellery, Campbell wears many hats. She has spent over
a decade working on charitable causes with organisations such as UNAIDS and
says that other than empowering women’s health, making sure young girls are
educated and self-reliance is very important to her.

Why Naomi Campbell believes Africa should guard its fashion and fabrics jealously

PRETORIA (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa’s energy regulator Nersa on Thursday granted struggling state power firm Eskom average power price increases that were far below what the utility had asked for, saying it aimed to balance the interests of the company and the public. 



Nersa decides every few years how much revenue cash-strapped Eskom is allowed to earn from its customers via electricity tariffs, based on forecasts of its power sales and costs.



Nersa said Eskom could hike tariffs by 9.41 percent in the 2019/20 financial year, 8.10 percent in 2020/21 and 5.22 percent in 2021/22.



Those tariff increases do not include previous awards Nersa gave Eskom last year, for costs incurred over 2014/15, 2015/16 and 2016/17, which will be recovered over a four-year period.



Eskom wanted power price increases of 17.1 percent, 15.4 percent and 15.5 percent over the next three years in its latest multi-year price determination application submitted last year.



On Thursday Nersa also allowed Eskom to recover 3.869 billion rand ($270 million) from its customers for electricity supplied in the 2017/18 financial year, significantly below the 21.6 billion rand that Eskom had applied for.



Nersa typically awards Eskom less than it asks for, as it only allows the company to recover costs which it deems prudently incurred.



Eskom supplies more than 90 percent of the power in Africa’s most industrialised economy. But it is grappling with breakdowns at its creaking coal-fired power station fleet which forced it to implement some of the worst power outages in several years last month.



The government has promised to inject 23 billion rand a year into Eskom over the next three years to help the utility meet repayments on its 420 billion rand debt burden.



($1 = 14.3353 rand)



Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Emelia Sithole-Matarise

Why SA’s energy regulator Nersa granted Eskom smaller tariff hikes than sought

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/dustinmckissen/">By Dustin McKissen</a> 



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/24/warren-buffett-and-bill-gates-agree-giving-up-this-one-thing-will-make-you-more-successful.html">Success</a> isn&#8217;t easy — and it certainly doesn&#8217;t happen overnight, but there are little things you can do every day to ensuring that you achieve your professional goals. The world&#8217;s most legendary leaders, from <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/04/self-made-millionaires-swear-by-these-5-morning-routinesand-they-all-take-less-than-10-minutes.html">Elon Musk and Oprah Winfrey to CEOs</a> at <a href="http://www.google.com/">Google</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/">Facebook</a>, all view <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/28/tony-robbins-says-the-most-successful-people-believe-in-these-7-lies-and-psychology-agrees.html">success as a work in progress</a>.



They key is to stay patient and committed. Here are six things you need to do on a daily basis if you want to be successful in life:



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">1. Read a book that isn&#8217;t directly related to your career</h4>



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/20/simon-sinek-these-2-life-changing-books-will-train-your-brain-for-success.html">Reading</a>&nbsp;is one of the easiest ways to experience life from another perspective and develop the empathy required to be an effective leader. But it&#8217;s important to expand your knowledge beyond your expertise.



There&#8217;s a reason why <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/16/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-says-he-was-raised-by-books.html">Elon Musk</a> includes works of science fiction and biographies as some of the essentials on his reading list. &#8220;I was raised by books. Books, and then my parents,&#8221; Musk said in an interview with <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/elon-musk-inventors-plans-for-outer-space-cars-finding-love-w511747">Rolling Stone</a>.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">2. Get sweaty</h4>



No, we&#8217;re not talking about going to the sauna or doing hot yoga.



Developing the courage to do something outside of your comfort zone is a sign that you&#8217;re leveling up. Otherwise, you won&#8217;t get very far in life. If you hate public speaking, be the first to speak at your next team meeting. Although you might get so nervous that you end up with sweat stains beneath your armpit sleeves, just do it anyway. It&#8217;ll get easier.



<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/why-facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-spent-years-learning-mandarin-chinese-n232266">Mark Zuckerberg spent years </a>learning Mandarin. And guess what? He did a pretty good job mastering it. Fear and growth cannot exist in the same space. One has to leave in order for the other to flourish.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">3. Exercise</h4>



In his five-year study of rich people, author&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/17/tom-corley-i-study-millionaires-this-is-the-secret-to-success.html">Tom Corley</a>&nbsp;found that exercising was something they all had in common. &#8220;Those who have forged the habit of exercising aerobically have tremendous competitive advantages over those who don&#8217;t,&#8221; he&nbsp;<a href="http://richhabits.net/this-is-why-self-made-millionaires-exercise-aerobically/">wrote in his blog</a>. Those advantages include higher IQ (intelligence quotient), willpower, confidence and up to 20 percent more energy.



A number of self-made billionaires, including Oprah Winfrey, Sheryl Sanberg and Richard Branson, incorporate exercise into their daily routines. <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/press-releases/2012/PhysicalActivityLifeExpectancy">Research</a> even found that small amounts of daily exercise can significantly help to extend your life.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">4. Give back</h4>



The myth that the lone hero succeeded because they managed to pull themselves up by the bootstraps is just that — a myth. Truly successful people understand the importance of giving back, especially to those in need.



In 2010, Bill and Melinda Gates and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/24/warren-buffett-and-bill-gates-agree-giving-up-this-one-thing-will-make-you-more-successful.html">Warren Buffett</a>&nbsp;started the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/02/look-whos-joined-buffett-gates-giving-pledge.html">Giving Pledge</a>, a commitment by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/31/14-billionaires-signed-bill-gates-and-warren-buffetts-giving-pledge.html">wealthy individuals and families</a>&nbsp;to give away more than half their fortune to causes like poverty alleviation and global health.



But it doesn&#8217;t have to be massive amounts of money. It can be as simple as offering to help an overworked colleague or an elderly person with their grocery bags. If you&#8217;re too busy to give back or return a favor, then you&#8217;re too busy to succeed.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">5. Take a moment to remember your competition</h4>



<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=QblACgAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PT138&amp;lpg=PT138&amp;dq=I+play+to+win,+whether+during+practice+or+a+real+game.+And+I+will+not+let+anything+get+in+the+way+of+me+and+my+competitive+enthusiasm+to+win.&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=EmGTZJw0kt&amp;sig=ACfU3U0t4IzhywsJnkVBoO-AgzZ6BYhvIg&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiAwZ-Vz-vgAhWumeAKHeE1ASsQ6AEwB3oECAAQAQ#v=onepage&amp;q=I%20play%20to%20win%2C%20whether%20during%20practice%20or%20a%20real%20game.%20And%20I%20will%20not%20let%20anything%20get%20in%20the%20way%20of%20me%20and%20my%20competitive%20enthusiasm%20to%20win.&amp;f=false">Michael Jordan once said</a>, &#8220;I play to win, whether during practice or a real game. And I will not let anything get in the way of me and my competitive enthusiasm to win.&#8221; The professional basketball player went from getting cut from his high school basketball team all the way to six championships and creating one of the most valuable athletic brands in history.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;I will not let anything get in the way of me and my competitive enthusiasm to win.&#8221;-Michael Jordan</blockquote>



Failing to forgive and holding grudges can weigh you down, but acknowledging your competition and doubters (a.k.a. the haters) can be a powerful form of motivation. It pushes you to do everything in your power to succeed and prove them wrong.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">6. Get outside and think</h4>



Everyone knows we all spend way too much time on our phones (<a href="https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/05/18/987607/0/en/Smartphone-Obsession-Grows-with-25-of-Millennials-Spending-More-Than-5-Hours-Per-Day-on-the-Phone.html">what&#8217;s new, millennials</a>?), but what we don&#8217;t talk about is what so many of us fail to do: Drop the devices, get outside, walk and&nbsp;just think.



A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xlm-a0036577.pdf">study from the American Psychology Association</a>&nbsp;found that outdoor walks can increase creativity and improve problem-solving skills. &#8220;When there is a premium on generating new ideas in the workday, it should be beneficial to incorporate walks,&#8221; the researchers wrote.



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/23/why-ceos-at-google-facebook-and-linkedin-love-walking-meetings.html">Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson and CEOs</a>&nbsp;at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.google.com/">Google</a>&nbsp;and LinkedIn also love holding their meetings on foot because it helps with brainstorming new concepts. &#8220;I find it to be a much quicker way of getting down to business, making a decision and sealing the deal,&#8221; Branson wrote in his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/why-you-should-stand-meetings">blog</a>. &#8220;Plus, it&#8217;s a great way to fit in a bit of exercise and stay focused on a busy day.&#8221;



Dustin McKissen is the founder of <a href="http://www.mckissen.co/">McKissen + Company</a>, a strategic communications firm in St. Charles, Missouri. He was also named one of LinkedIn&#8217;s &#8220;Top Voices in Management and Corporate Culture.&#8221; Follow him on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/DMcKissen">@DMcKissen </a>.



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/06/bill-gates-warren-buffett-google-ceos-and-billionaires-do-these-6-things-every-day-to-be-successful.html and is republished with its permission.

Self-made billionaires like Warren Buffett and Elon Musk prove if you don’t make time for these 6 little things every day, you’ll never be successful

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; The head of Zimbabwe’s central bank denied on Thursday that it had fixed the exchange rate of the country’s new transitional currency, whose value it said it would let the market decide. 



Zimbabwe ditched a discredited 1:1 dollar peg for its dollar-surrogate bond notes and electronic dollars on Feb 20, merging them into a transitional currency called the RTGS dollar.



The value of that currency, which authorities said they would float, has held unchanged at 2.5 to the U.S. dollar since Feb. 22.



The country’s economy has been crippled by a cash crunch and plans to allow ordinary Zimbabweans to exchange bond notes and electronic dollars for U.S. dollars at banks have yet to be implemented.



On the black market, the RTGS rate was 3.8 to the dollar on Thursday, compared to 3.5 last week.



Concerns that the government is resisting moves to allow a further devaluation of the RTGS dollar has discouraged those holding U.S. dollars from selling them at the prevailing rate.



“We have not fixed the exchange rate and we will not fix it,” Central Bank Governor John Mangudya told a parliamentary committee.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">‘MARKET MANIPULATION’</h3>



Ministry of finance secretary George Guvamatanga saw room for a further RTGS dollar devaluation, which he said the market would determine.



He told the committee that volumes traded on the black market were thin and that if rates on the forex interbank market rose too high, very few businesses could afford to buy dollars.



“We know between the two of us, where that exchange rate should be and where it should end but we will allow the market to get there,” Guvamatanga said.



John Robertson, a Harare-based economist, said the currency market was still being manipulated. “What they are trying to do is to ensure stability but market forces may decide otherwise,” he said.



The central bank has allowed mining companies and other exporters to sell their dollars on the interbank market, thereby seeking to create a pool of dollars to pay for vital imports such as drugs, electricity and fuel.



Mangudya said Zimbabwe imported fuel worth $173 million in January and February through credit lines from foreign banks, which was enough to cover local demand during the period.



He said the fuel shortages that have been experienced since the start of the year were caused by some dealers failing to raise enough money to buy U.S. dollars for fuel imports and delays in supplies following payments.



On Tuesday, the government allowed mining companies and some other businesses to import their own fuel. Mangudya said supplies should normalise this month. Such promises have previously failed to end shortages.



Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Alexander Winning and John Stonestreet

Has Zimbabwe’s central bank fixed the exchange rate of the country’s new transitional currency?

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/karen-gilchrist/">By Karen Gilchrist </a>



With increasing talk of <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/17/wef-machines-are-going-to-perform-more-tasks-than-humans-by-2025.html">job disruption and automation</a>, it&#8217;s important to think about the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/01/hr-experts-share-the-skills-employees-will-most-need-in-the-future.html">skills that will be most in demand in the future</a>.



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=MSFT">Microsoft</a>, in its latest research, defined those as digital skills, analytical abilities and continuous learning capabilities. In particular, the tasks that require strong analytic abilities will call for a creative approach, explained Kevin Wo, Microsoft&#8217;s managing director for Singapore.



&#8220;I think there&#8217;s a need for them to learn about skills around design thinking,&#8221; Wo said of employees.



&#8220;Design thinking&#8221; is a term for a particular method of problem solving, which dictates that individuals should try and get into a customer&#8217;s shoes to generate practical, user-friendly solutions. That could mean creating a new technology or product, such as Apple&#8217;s iPhone. But the strategy can — and should — also be applied to other job functions, design thinking specialist Kasia Miaskiewicz told&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/">CNBC Make It</a>.



&#8220;You can apply it anywhere,&#8221; said Miaskiewicz, a director at UBS Evolve, the Swiss bank&#8217;s center for design thinking and innovation. &#8220;As long as there is a user, a recipient – and there always is – there&#8217;s always an opportunity to apply design thinking.&#8221;



Speaking at a recent careers conference in Singapore, Miaskiewicz said the strategy can be broken down into four key steps.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">What is?</h4>



First up, you need to think about the problem you are trying to solve and make sure you frame it correctly by asking the right questions, Miaskiewicz explained.



&#8220;It&#8217;s all about asking the right questions and solving for the right problems,&#8221; said Miaskiewicz, who is a director at UBS Evolve, the Swiss bank&#8217;s center for design thinking and innovation.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">What if?</h4>



Next, you should consider the potential solutions that will reduce frustrations or &#8220;key friction points&#8221; for users. Miaskiewicz said that means closely observing customers to see how you can improve their experience.



&#8220;The way you develop that part is really watching your customers. From that step a lot of ideas will start popping up,&#8221; she noted.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">What wows?</h4>



At that point several possible ideas should start coming to mind, said Miaskiewicz. Not all will be feasible, she noted, but you should try to be as open-minded as possible and avoid thinking too much about the &#8220;cannots.&#8221;



&#8220;If you start with constraints – time, cost etc. – your ideas of tomorrow will look the same as those of today,&#8221; said Miaskiewicz.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">What works?</h4>



Ultimately, Miaskiewicz said, the workable solution will be the one that ticks the boxes for three key criteria: execution, economics and customer. Put another way, the idea that is feasible for your company to create, makes sense financially and pleases the client.



You can then start experimenting with prototypes and measuring their success before creating a final product, she noted.



&#8220;Following that process really helps you get into users&#8217; shoes and create the right solutions to the most frustrating problems,&#8221; Miaskiewicz noted.



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/05/skills-of-the-future-how-to-master-design-thinking.html and is republished with its permission.

Microsoft calls it a key skill of the future. Here are 4 steps to mastering it

NAIROBI (Reuters) &#8211; A strike over a labour dispute disrupted flights at Kenya’s main international airport in Nairobi early on Wednesday, Kenya Airports Authority said, though the transport minister expected them to resume soon. 



Hundreds of passengers were waiting outside the international and domestic terminals and riot police dispersed picketing ground staff, a Reuters witness said, adding that three planes took off at about 0530 GMT despite the strike.



Twenty-five foreign airlines operate out of JKIA, including Kenya Airways, Turkish Airlines, Emirates, South African Airways and Ethiopian Airlines.



Transport Minister James Macharia said replacement staff had been found to screen passengers and luggage.



“That matter has been sorted out&#8230; I can assure you that within the hour we will have our first aircraft actually flying out,” Macharia told reporters at 0645 GMT at the airport.



The strike at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport follows a labour dispute over contracts and job security between the Kenya Aviation Workers Union (KAWU)and Kenya Airways.



Kenya Airways CEO Sebastian Mikosz told reporters that 24 flights had been delayed and two diverted to other Kenyan airports.



“We are processing them with the new screeners we have brought in from the air force but also from (Kenya Airways), so the first flight is scheduled for departure at 1030,” said Jonny Anderson, CEO of Kenya Airports Authority.



He said there would be delays to scheduled flights throughout the day.



Union leader Moss Ndiema was arrested shortly after making a speech at the airport, Kenya’s Citizen TV reported. A court injunction had earlier ordered the suspension of the planned industrial action.



“I feel bad, very bad, because I don’t know what is going to happen. There are many passengers here,” said Adebukola Idayat Atunrase, an Egypt Air passenger en route to Nigeria.



Writing by Hereward Holland; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise

Why flights at Kenya’s main international airport have been disrupted

By Charlie Robertson, Global Chief Economist at Renaissance Capital.



South Africa’s GDP for 2018 was just released which shows it was Africa’s biggest economy in actual dollars (PPP dollars, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)">which show</a> Nigeria was the biggest in 2017 at $1.2 trillion , don’t buy you the imports you need to build an oil refinery – note that PPP dollars are NOT what puts Nigeria’s GDP at $397bn .. the $397bn figure is the exchange rate the IMF used which is different from the NAFEX rate of NGN362/$ we use).  



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Nigeria-what-now.png" alt="" class="wp-image-329831" width="678" height="325"/></figure>



This piece outlines the
2019-23 outlook for Nigeria – as it tries to regain the top spot. 



To get real per capita GDP
growth up to 4-6% (ie headline GDP growth of 7-9%) requires either 



<ol class="wp-block-list"><li>A doubling of the oil price, or</li><li>Industrialisation </li></ol>



Without it, per capita
GDP growth may be around 0% which implies headline GDP rising at roughly 3%
annually 



To achieve
industrialisation, Nigeria needs to 



<ol class="wp-block-list"><li>Raise the adult literacy rate from 60%
 to 70-80% &#8211; which we think can happen from 2024 onwards.&nbsp; An adult
 literacy campaign could accelerate this – copying what the super poor,
 war-torn state of South Korea did in the 1950s. </li><li>Treble electricity consumption – which
 we assume requires at least a doubling of the electricity tariff.&nbsp;
 Buhari’s team has not forced through any of the annual increases due since
 2016. As a result, Nigeria has three times more installed generating
 capacity than actual distribution.&nbsp; We are too glib to suggest it is
 just about the electricity price – but a big hike will surely be part of
 the solution. &nbsp;</li><li>Double the investment rate from 13% of
 GDP to 26% of GDP – or triple it, to match what Ethiopia is doing.&nbsp; </li></ol>



To double the investment
rate we suggest that reforms may be needed like 



<ol class="wp-block-list"><li>Removing the implicit fuel subsidy which costs
 about 0.5% of GDP. It supports consumption and not investment. Morocco
 after 2012, Egypt since 2014 and even the Gulf countries are cutting fuel
 subsidies. &nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Encourage foreign direct investment, which in
 2018 fell to $2.2bn according to UNCTAD.&nbsp; Ghana got $3bn.&nbsp; To
 match Ghana (per capita), Nigeria should be getting $24bn a year.&nbsp; A
 change of approach to MTN, the oil majors and others may be required. </li><li>Boost domestic savings and bring down interest
 rates which will probably require a smaller budget deficit and higher
 taxes. </li><li>Allow the currency to trade closer to fair
 value which we estimate today at NGN440/$, NGN470 by year-end and NGN670
 by end-2023. &nbsp;Allowing faster currency depreciation does partly
 contradict point 3 on cutting interest rates. Note that in the immediate
 term, ahead of the CBN governor’s term expiring on 2 June, fixed income
 investors are probably assuming short-term currency stability, based
 on decent FX reserves figures (over $40bn), a current account in small
 surplus and high domestic interest rates. &nbsp;Our base case is that
 whoever the governor is, the currency will end-2019 at NGN395/$. We
 have no reason to believe that if there is a change of CBN governor, we
 will see an end to the multiple exchange rate regime. </li></ol>



The good news is that
President Buhari has <a href="https://africa.cgtn.com/2019/03/02/muhammadu-buhari-says-second-term-will-be-tough/">already declared</a> his second term will be
“tough” – so perhaps he will take his 4m vote victory margin to push through
difficult reforms. The cabinet should be in place soon after the new
presidential term starts on 29 May – unlike 2015 where it took six months.
There should be less of a learning curve than we saw in 2015-17. 



The precedent of 2015-19
tells us equity investors will not assume rapid, deep reforms. Even if
nationwide progress is hard to achieve, we may see localised success stories,
such as in Lagos – which has the biggest adult population of any state in
Nigeria, high adult literacy (over 80%) and is now planning to get 3GW of
electricity over the next few years (total nationwide distribution is around
4GW).&nbsp; 



Lastly – we cross-checked
population data against voting data because we doubted our initial estimates
that there were 22% more adult voters in Nasarawa state than adults.&nbsp; We
ended up agreeing with local and IMF estimates of the population being around
194m in 2018 and perhaps 199m in 2019. We even ended up agreeing with a recent
Economist article that the 200 millionth Nigerian may be born in 2019. We can
go into more detail on specific voting data for various states if you’re
interested in pursuing this. 



Our top three local debt
picks remain Argentina, Turkey and Egypt.&nbsp; Our equity strategist has
Nigeria on neutral.&nbsp; With some rapid reforms, a better value currency,
accelerating growth – Nigeria could become an overweight again.

Op-Ed: Nigeria – what now ?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) &#8211; U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday extended by one year sanctions against Zimbabwe saying that the new government’s policies continue to pose an “unusual and extraordinary” threat to U.S. foreign policy.



The renewal comes despite calls by African leaders, including South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, for the sanctions to be lifted to give the country a chance to recover from its economic crisis.



“The actions and policies of these persons continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States,” Trump said in a notice announcing the extension, adding: “I am continuing for (one) year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288.”



The renewal comes despite calls by African leaders, including South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, for the sanctions to be lifted to give the country a chance to recover from its economic crisis.



Trump administration officials had said the sanctions will remain until the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa changes Zimbabwe’s laws restricting media freedom and allowing protests.



According to U.S. officials, there are 141 entities and individuals in Zimbabwe, including Mnangagwa and long-time former president Robert Mugabe, currently under U.S. sanctions.



Mnangagwa has called for the sanctions to be lifted against the ZANU-PF ruling party, top military figures and some government-owned firms, which were imposed during Mugabe’s rule over what the United States said were human rights violations and undermining of the democratic process.



Reporting by Lesley Wroughton, editing by G Crosse

Here’s why U.S. president Trump extended sanctions against Zimbabwe by a year

LONDON (Reuters) &#8211; An HIV-positive man in Britain has become the second known adult worldwide to be cleared of the AIDS virus after he received a bone marrow transplant from an HIV resistant donor, his doctors said.



Almost three years after receiving bone marrow stem cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that resists HIV infection &#8211; and more than 18 months after coming off antiretroviral drugs &#8211; highly sensitive tests still show no trace of the man’s previous HIV infection.



“There is no virus there that we can measure. We can’t detect anything,” said Ravindra Gupta, a professor and HIV biologist who co-led a team of doctors treating the man.



The case is a proof of the concept that scientists will one day be able to end AIDS, the doctors said, but does not mean a cure for HIV has been found.



Gupta described his patient as “functionally cured” and “in remission”, but cautioned: “It’s too early to say he’s cured.”



The man is being called “the London patient”, in part because his case is similar to the first known case of a functional cure of HIV &#8211; in an American man, Timothy Brown, who became known as the Berlin patient when he underwent similar treatment in Germany in 2007 which also cleared his HIV.



Brown, who had been living in Berlin, has since moved to the United States and, according to HIV experts, is still HIV-free.



Some 37 million people worldwide are currently infected with HIV and the AIDS pandemic has killed around 35 million people worldwide since it began in the 1980s. Scientific research into the complex virus has in recent years led to the development of drug combinations that can keep it at bay in most patients.



Gupta, now at Cambridge University, treated the London patient when he was working at University College London. The man had contracted HIV in 2003, Gupta said, and in 2012 was also diagnosed with a type of blood cancer called Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">LAST CHANCE</h3>



In 2016, when he was very sick with cancer, doctors decided to seek a transplant match for him. “This was really his last chance of survival,” Gupta told Reuters in an interview.



The donor &#8211; who was unrelated &#8211; had a genetic mutation known as ‘CCR5 delta 32’, which confers resistance to HIV.



The transplant went relatively smoothly, Gupta said, but there were some side effects, including the patient suffering a period of “graft-versus-host” disease &#8211; a condition in which donor immune cells attack the recipient’s immune cells.



Most experts say it is inconceivable such treatments could be a way of curing all patients. The procedure is expensive, complex and risky. To do this in others, exact match donors would have to be found in the tiny proportion of people — most of them of northern European descent — who have the CCR5 mutation that makes them resistant to the virus.



Specialists said it is also not yet clear whether the CCR5 resistance is the only key &#8211; or whether the graft versus host disease may have been just as important. Both the Berlin and London patients had this complication, which may have played a role in the loss of HIV-infected cells, Gupta said.



Sharon Lewin, an expert at Australia’s Doherty Institute and co-chair of the International AIDS Society’s cure research advisory board, told Reuters the London case points to new avenues for study.



“We haven’t cured HIV, but (this) gives us hope that it’s going to be feasible one day to eliminate the virus,” she said.



Gupta said his team plans to use these findings to explore potential new HIV treatment strategies. “We need to understand if we could knock out this (CCR5) receptor in people with HIV, which may be possible with gene therapy,” he said.



The London patient, whose case was set to be reported in the journal Nature and presented at a medical conference in Seattle on Tuesday, has asked his medical team not to reveal his name, age, nationality or other details.



Reporting by Kate Kelland; editing by Catherine Evans

HIV-positive patient becomes world’s second AIDS cure hope

<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/cat-clifford/">By Catherine Clifford</a> 



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=FB">Facebook</a> currently has a market capitalization of $463 billion. But what&#8217;s Facebook worth to you?



A&nbsp;<a href="http://web.stanford.edu/~gentzkow/research/facebook.pdf">study released in January</a>&nbsp;found out how much people would need to be paid to deactivate their Facebook accounts for four weeks: &#8220;The median valuation was around $100 dollars a month,&#8221; Stanford economics professor,&nbsp;<a href="https://gentzkow.people.stanford.edu/">Matthew Gentzkow</a>, who co-authored the study&nbsp;<a href="https://www.recode.net/2019/2/27/18243546/facebook-study-stanford-gentzkow-wellbeing-politcal-polarization">told Recode</a>.



&#8220;But there&#8217;s a lot of spread,&#8221; said Gentzkow. &#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of people all the way from $0 to $100, and then a lot of people who gave really big numbers. Sort of like, &#8216;You couldn&#8217;t pay me enough to give up Facebook.&#8217;



&#8220;I can&#8217;t say conclusively, &#8216;Has Facebook proven good or bad for society?&#8217; [but] what is clear is that the people who use it value it a lot,&#8221; Gentzkow said.



The study, which was published in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w25514">National Bureau of Economic Research</a>, was authored by four professors, three from Stanford and one from New York University. For the study, researchers recruited 2,844 Facebook users and asked some of them to deactivate their Facebook account for four weeks, starting shortly after the 2018 U.S. midterm elections on Nov. 6. Some were not paid to deactivate (the control group) and other were paid.



Fifty-eight percent of study participants were willing to deactivate for less than $102.



And for the average person in the paid group, deactivating Facebook freed up to an hour per day of their time, the study says.



Being off Facebook also generally contributed to a better subjective well-being, the study found.



&#8220;Deactivation caused small but significant improvements in well-being, and in particular on self-reported happiness, life satisfaction, depression, and anxiety,&#8221; the study said.



&#8220;I was way less stressed. I wasn&#8217;t attached to my phone as much as I was before,&#8221; one study participant reported. &#8220;And I found I didn&#8217;t really care so much about things that were happening [online] because I was more focused on my own life&#8230; I felt more content. I think I was in a better mood generally. I thought I would miss seeing everyone&#8217;s day-to-day activities&#8230; I really didn&#8217;t miss it at all.&#8221;



Another said the time that had been devoted to Facebook was redistributed to offline activities: &#8220;I realized how much time I was wasting. I now have time for other things. I&#8217;ve been reading books and playing the piano which I used to do daily until the phone took over.&#8221;



For some, however, the time off of Facebook was isolating. &#8220;I was shut off from those [online] conversations, or just from being an observer of what people are doing or thinking. . . I didn&#8217;t like it at first at all, I felt very cut off from people that I like. . . I didn&#8217;t like it because I spend a lot of time by myself anyway, I&#8217;m kind of an introvert, so I use Facebook in a social aspect in a very big way,&#8221; one study participant responded.



&#8220;This is one study of many on this topic and it should be considered that way,&#8221; a Facebook spokesperson tells&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/">CNBC Make It</a>. &#8220;Our teams have been working hard on these issues. We&#8217;ve introduced several new tools so people can take greater control of their experience and made product updates to increase the number of meaningful conversations and connections people have on Facebook. We have more work to do, but we&#8217;re making steady progress.&#8221;



Those tools include controls allowing users to&nbsp;<a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/08/manage-your-time/">manage the time they spend on Facebook</a>&nbsp;and a privacy check up, which lets users to review and change the settings that determine who you share what with, the Facebook spokesperson tells CNBC Make It.



The Facebook spokesperson also pointed out some study results were positive: &#8220;Our results leave little doubt that Facebook produces large benefits for its users,&#8221; the conclusion of the study says. &#8220;Any discussion of social media&#8217;s downsides should not obscure the basic fact that it fulfills deep and widespread needs.&#8221; These comments were &#8220;encouraging,&#8221; said the spokesperson.



Benefits mentioned in the study include Facebook being a source of news and information, a source of entertainment, a tool to help organize events or groups or a social outlet for those who feel otherwise isolated. 



This article was first published by CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/01/stanford-nyu-study-what-youd-have-to-pay-people-to-get-off-facebook.html and is republished with its permission.

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Here’s why U.S. president Trump extended sanctions against Zimbabwe by a year

HIV-positive patient becomes world’s second AIDS cure hope

Here’s how much you’d have to pay people to deactivate Facebook for a month

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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